Hopes are high for Apple's new iPad, and analysts over at IHS iSuppli expect that the latest iOS tablet will be a big hit.

The new iPad will be so successful, iSuppli researchers predict, that Apple will regain some of the global media tablet market share that it lost to Android competitors during the fourth quarter of 2011.

Of course, Apple is still far ahead in the tablet race, and it only lost a small portion of its stake in the market.

The alarming factor there, however, is that most of that slice of the pie was gobbled up by just one competitor: Amazon's Kindle Fire.

In another report from iSuppli last month, Amazon went from having zero percent of the market share in Q3 2011 to garnering 14 percent of the share by the end of Q4.

Nevertheless, Rhoda Alexander, senior manager of tablet and monitor research for IHS iSuppli, is rather optimistic in Apple's favor, explaining in the report:

With the release of the third-generation iPad, Apple is leapfrogging the competition, resetting the bar for media tablet performance. We expect demand for the new iPad—with its high-resolution, 2,048 by 1,536 display—to outstrip supply for much of the year. Meanwhile, more price-sensitive customers will flock to buy the freshly discounted iPad 2.

Alexander added that the discounted iPad 2 could be more enticing in the education market. Pricing for the iPad 2 has dropped to a starting point of $399, and an educational discount would help somewhat.

Total global media tablet shipments are expected to hit 124 million units in 2012, up 90 percent from 65 million in 2011.

Apple’s projected share of global media tablet shipments for 2012 overall is 61 percent, slightly down from 62 percent in 2011, but up from 57 percent at the end of the fourth quarter of 2011.